El Presidente

Yeah I realized I forgot those two after looking at Jezseks write-up. Lol I was going from memory and had a bit of a coffee rush going. Josh

NWWO BBQ is a great idea! I've seen a couple pictures of your wheelin spot and it looks fun, lets do it. Josh

Hey its all good, to each their own right? I guess what I was trying to get across was that the OP shouldn't be limited by staying with subaru seats, but instead it turned into a rant about my dislike of subaru seats. Any seat will work that physically fits in the car, you just have to make it work. I've heard a lot of guys that talk highly of newer subaru seats, especially the WRX/STI seats, so maybe my butt and back isn't built for them. Josh

Thats a great write-up Jeszek! Josh

Sounds great, thanks for getting the word out to Reid! Josh

I'm running 93 stock legacy wagon mounts under my ej22 and also stock 87 d/r trans mounts which turn 31's. My engine and tranny hardly moves at all and I'm not nice to my rig. Sounds like you don't need to upgrade, but just replace some broken mounts. Hows your pitch rod doing? They make a huge difference in engine/trans stability. Are you lifted? Have you gotten it in the air and checked engine and trans crossmember bolts? Josh

If your worried about stiffening up the car, why don't you stiffen up the car instead of the mounts? Hard mounts will just put more strain on mounting points, which will twist the body even more. Have you tried a strut bar? Why are you worried about twisting your rig offroad? Are you having problems? Josh

Hope to see you up there Scott! Josh

I'm hoping to do another run in late Jan./early Feb., so there will be more chances. I'm also wanting to do a Tahuya run soon...gotta test my hood snorkel out sometime! Josh

Sounds good! If you need some help, I should be around next weekend Josh

You need to remove the instrument cluster to get to the bulbs and its not that bad if you don't try rushing it. Start with the heater controls by removing the off and defrost buttons. You do this by gently prying them out with a screwdriver or plastic putty knife. Once removed, you'll see a phillips screw under each you'll need to take out. ---Once you remove these screws, the heater controls WILL NOT come out---. Theres two little ears that the screws go into and this is what usually breaks so at this point just leave it alone. If you'd like, you can remove the buttons next to the door(rear defrost/cruise) by prying the button blank next to the working buttons out. I think you need to pull on of the buttons too..IIRC its the rear defrost..theres a screw under there too. This will gently come out and have a harness or two that needs to be unplugged. Next, if you look right in front of the instrument cluster you'll see two screws, take these out. Now grab a metal putty knife or screw driver and start prying the plastic surround off. This goes around the instrument cluster and the 3? dash vents. I start at the middle of the car and work out by prying the two center vents out first. The arm that extend to the center of the car is probably the number 2 place these break. Once you get a section up, keep working around until its loose. Theres another piece that may fall off that is on the top of the surround, but its ok. Now the surround should be loose. Gently pull it out with the steering wheel all the way down and start to disconnect the plugs and harnesses. carefully put the surround to the side. You really don't need to label any of the plugs because its really obvious what goes where on reinstall. Take a look at the instrument cluster and you'll see 4? screws. Take these out and gently pull the cluster out and disconnect the speedo cable by reaching over the top of the cluster and simply pulling it off(that how it is on my USDM 87 gl) on reinstall it just pushes back on. It should be a little looser now. Unplug the two connectors at the top of the cluster and the two round ones on the back. Ones black and ones white and they both come off the same way by pushing the plastic lever in the middle to the outside edge of the connetor while pulling it off. The instrument cluster should be free now. I guess if your just replacing bulbs change them as soon as you can get to them. They are located in little brown bulb holders that untwist from the back of the cluster. One more note on the heater control, it may slump forward when getting in there or it may stay up. When putting the surround back on, you'll need to make sure the heater controls are sitting on there straight. Theres a little rubber coated peg on the back of the heater controls that fits into a socket behind it. It need to be in this socket to fit right. When your aligning the heater controls use a screw driver or plastic putty knife to gently align the buttons and heat selector while pushing the surround onto it. The screw holes should line up and the buttons should be flush. This is the number 3 place they break so take your time. Good luck Josh

I know you don't want to do a lot of mods, but your butt will thank you if you do. I've got seats out of a 07 Jeep Patriot in my 87 gl and they are awesome! I personally don't like subaru seats at all, even the nice outback ones. Even in good shape they just feel like the seats on the mid 90's community transit buses I rode on as a kid. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/130988-just-put-07-jeep-compasspatriot-seats-in-my-87-gl/ Josh

NEW MEETING PLACE - The Conway 76 gas station Its on the east side of I-5 at the Highway 534, Conway/Lake McMurray exit. Its about 10-15 minutes south of Mount Vernon. Theres another gas station next to the round about on the west side of the freeway, so don't get them confused. Lets shoot for 10am Who wants to hit the trails? Josh

You can send your stock cams to Delta Cams and they can grind a different cam profile for you to free up some power where you need it. Another option is putting EJ18 heads on your EJ22 to boost compression. EJ22's are fairly bullet proof and it takes a lot to blow them up. Josh

Hows an early snow run up to walker sound on Dec 27th or Jan 3rd? Josh

You shouldn't have to do anything with the motor to get the bumper off. IIRC the bumper is held on by 4 bolts(14mm?...might be 17mm) right above the rectangle subframe that the front engine crossmember bolts to. its just behind the radiator, well in front of the valve covers. There are captive nuts on the inside of the engine compartment, the bolts come out towards the outside of the car and the heads of the bolts are accessed inside the forward wheel well. If you still have your liners in the wheel well, you'll need to pull those out. Its really not hard, I think you might be confusing it with something else. I find it a lot easier to build things like bumpers, skid pans and any other armor directly on the rig. Things have a way of getting tweeked around and with unibody rigs, the distance between mounting points can depend if it was made on a Wednesday or a Friday. I know you don't wanna hear that because you want to fabricate stuff at work, but there is very little that I would feel comfortable fabing up away from my rig with out taking a ton of measurements. It was good to wheel with you up to walker valley, are up for going to reiter sometime? I haven't been there since it reopened. Josh

Another option to look at is a samurai tcase. They are a little smaller vertically than the Datsun/nissan case, which helps with ground clearance because they are clocked to the pass side IIRC, and they also have a ton of aftermarket support. I think they also come stock with a 2:1 low range, but that can be increased to 8:1!! Gloyale, I'm curious, do you know how a Datsun/Nissan T100 would do clocked on its side for a pass. or driver drop front driveline? I've never split one open, but it sounds like you have an understanding of the internals. It might help with the oiling issue and allow the use of standard solid front axles This thread really belongs in the offroad section.. Josh

Welcome to the USMB! Sorry nothing new lately. Between women, school and having limited funds, things move slower than normal and I've also got a '68 falcon I'm resto-modding which takes its share of any extra money laying around. Theres some pictures in the offroad section from the last trip up to walker valley you can check out if you want. Josh

If your looking at a CJ7 and it has a stock tcase behind a manual its most likely a married dana 20 or 300. I'm planning on running one of these when I go straight axle, except a divorced version so I can easily keep the Subaru engine/trans. They are reasonably sized, they have huge amounts of aftermarket support and are both tough cases. You can use most married tcases as divorced or doubled units with some small mods and aftermarket kits. Pirate 4x4 is a great place to get info on this. The CJ never came stock with a NP205, but if you come across one, it probably gonna be way to big for what your doing. The NP205 is the the strongest you can get for the size and probably the most reliable, but its heavy and after market support is non-exsistant. Its a gear driven unit that comes stock with 1:1.96 ratio and there's just no room for bigger gears. They came in fullsize 3/4 trucks if your looking for one..I'll sell you one for $50. I'm not as familiar with the NP241, but I've seen guys pull them out of TJ Rubicons...they might be the tcases that came in the CJ7 auto's. Every NP case I've seen behind an auto has been chain drive and I've never heard of them eating gears because of the ATF(its what they are designed to run), but the chains stretch and need replacing every 100-200K miles. Its not hard to do and takes a few hours. NP chain drive tcases are generally well regarded and considered reliable. Before you decide what vehicle your case will come out of, decide what you need from it. Things to consider are size, weight, passenger/center/driver drop front yoke, married or divorced case and plans on doubling. Its convenient that the nissan case slides onto the 5mt and its tiny, but you are certainly not limited by that. Mixing and matching power train parts is nothing new and adapting parts isn't hard. Driveline shops and builders can be really helpful for this and its not that expensive. The Nissan case is a center drop unit and if you run a pass or driver drop axle, you can run into bad binding in the driveline. I'm not saying it can't be done, but typically you get a pass drop tcase for a pass drop axle. I have seen center drop tcases used on SAS setups, but it was only with custom center chunk axles. It involves taking the knuckles off a dana 44 front and putting them on a trimmed dana 44 rear. You have to run custom made axle shafts and its $$$ and a big PIA. Center drop cases do work awesome for front IFS though. Josh

Thanks for posting this Ted! I meant to do it earlier, but got side tracked. See you tomorow morning Josh

I checked the weather up there and Sat. the 29th is suppose to be totally clear, sunny and a cool 31*. Its been raining hard for about a week and a half up there, so expect lots of mud. Josh

I run my tires at 28psi all the time and for me, it seems to be a good middle ground. I've aired down a few times for deep powdery snow, but these cars are so light that they just don't sink. What would be best on your rig is something you need to figure out for yourself. Its based on things like vehicle weight, cargo, tires, terrain, conditions, and driving style. It takes some trail time to figure out, but if we get more trips going, it wont take long. Josh

Is that the stock balancer that came with the engine? I can't remember, but I think SBF balancers will fit on the big 6 engines. Does TDC on #5 sit exactly at 0 on the timing marks? Has the outer ring separated from the rubber and rotated? Josh

Good luck on your hunting trip! There should be lots of good pictures and video from this trip. Between Nathaniel and my cousin Stan, who is riding with me, we've got two really good photographers. I also got my Gopro working right and I intend on putting the entire trip, or at least the good parts on youtube. Josh